Lieutenant Gov. Donna Lynne is a different kind of Colorado politician.

But in some ways, she matches the man who appointed her to that position, Gov. John Hickenlooper, a fellow Colorado Democrat.

Perhaps key among their similarities is that Lynne said she approaches government as if it were a business, which has seemed to be Hickenlooper's mantra since back when he was the mayor of Denver.

"Government should run like a business," Lynne said. "We should be accountable to you."

She visited Fort Morgan on Wednesday for a talk with community officials and stakeholders that was sponsored by Progressive 15, a political education and advocacy nonprofit whose members span the 15 counties of northeast Colorado.

"Governor Hickenlooper asked me if I would be the chief operating officer of the state," Lynne said of her appointment after Joe Garcia left the lieutenant governor post.

To create that role for the lieutenant governor job, Hickenlooper "had to get a bill passed," Lynne said.

But he got that done, and Lynne stepped into that role in May 2016 in what was a somewhat natural transition for the businesswoman, who previously had served as an executive with Kaiser Permanente.

Lynne called the state a "$30 billion enterprise," and she took her role as the state's COO and lieutenant governor as meaning that she needed to "make sure we're doing what the people want and what we told them we would do."

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Her focus since taking the job was on customer service and transparency, which were Hickenlooper's priorities, as well. To that end, Lynne was involved in the colorado.gov online dashboard, which was created to provide information about the state and its various agencies and programs.

Another area where she was active, Lynne said, was in finding ways to bring together an issue like legalized marijuana that spans across many agencies and departments.

"One of the things my office does is weave together initiatives that cross multiple departments," she said, calling these "collaborative measures."

Something else Lynne has done is make efforts to get out and visit various parts of Colorado. She said she has been to 56 of the 64 counties, and this was her second visit to Fort Morgan.

In rural areas, she has heard concerns not unlike those of the Front Range, but perhaps with some different focuses.

"I've yet to hear a rural community say they want incentives" to do something, Lynne said, instead hearing most about real needs for getting infrastructure built for things like broadband and transportation so that businesses could be attracted more readily and the rural communities could then make things happen.

It was no different in Fort Morgan, where the need for rural broadband infrastructure and access and transportation upgrades were mentioned multiple times by those went to hear from Lynne.

"We need broadband out here," said Kari Linker, director of development at Morgan Community College.

The lieutenant governor pointed to Hickenlooper's state of the state address and how he "committed to have 85 percent of rural households have broadband access by 2018," with a goal of 100 percent access by 2020. Progress on this was something state residents can track on the colorado.gov dashboard, she said.

On transportation, she spoke some about how the state is projected to have $9 billion in needed projects over the next 10 years, but currently the Colorado Department of Transportation's budget is "entirely devoted to maintenance."

Of the $2.5 billion worth of transportation projects currently on CDOT's radar, "not all of them are in the Front Range," Lynn said. "Many of them are in this area."

There are not any easy or fast solutions for how transportation funding can be increased, she acknowledged, but this is something her office is involved in researching. Possibilities include seeking gas or sales tax increases from voters, with the revenue dedicated to transportation infrastructure improvements, or seeking some kind of bonding.

"We're trying to figure out the right formula," Lynne said of potential ballot issues.

Cathy Shull, executive director of Progressive 15, said her nonprofit had been involved in such discussions and planning related to transportation improvements funding for about 12 years.

"Our organization is very strong about if you're going to bond, there has to be revenue to support it," she told Lynne.

Progressive 15 also may be willing to support an increase to gas or sales tax for this purpose, but the preference would be a sales tax-related ballot issue, she said.

"We feel very strongly it should go onto the ballot and let the people decide," Shull told Lynne.

"We probably should have a package of options," the lieutenant governor said, which could offer alternatives in case ballot issues failed.

These were only a couple highlights from the various issues Lynne talked about during her visit to Fort Morgan, but they were among the top ones that seemed to capture the attention of nearly everyone who showed up to listen to the lieutenant governor, even if they disagreed with what she had to say.

Lynne also spent a fair amount of time taking questions and answering them, also having her chief of staff keep notes on things to look into further or suggestions that were made.

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